I'm not the biggest fan of Black Metal that exists, as a matter of fact, I could hardly be considered a "Blackster", never burned a church or had a inverted cross, never had any corspepaint on me, and I don't like to wear spikes or any other war related "souvenirs", and while those things may sound a little cliché, that's the way Black Metal has become lately: Cliché, I can hardly name bands that aren't copying others, and let's face it, there are a zillion Black Metal bands around, so is hard to choose who's original or not….

So it came the day when I had this album in my hands, Dark Fortress, a new band to me, although this is their third full-length album. The album had an stunning cover art that draw my attention from the first minute, later I discovered that the design was done by no one than artist extraordinaire Travis Smith.

Is important to clarify here, Dark Fortress doesn't play any "new" kind of Black Metal, they just play an Old School Black Metal with style, attitude and a lot of creativity in songwriting and musicianship. Each song is a killer one, and each one differs from the next, variation is the key in this album.

"Iconoclast Omega" opens the album with furious pace and great tempo changes, the song is so varied; you have blast beats, melodic parts, some catchy riffs and even a sound sample of a serial killer or something like that, really creepy. Things slow down with "Self Mutilation" another great song, more mid tempo. Title song "Stab Wounds" is another excellent example of the talent of these Germans, "When 1000 Crypts Awake" is a catchy Black Metal song with excellent variations, as always.

The best thing of this band is that the songs don't go blasting all the way through, they have some moodier moments, catchy parts, guitar solos, keyboards, etc, each song has many moods and changes, making them really interesting.

A couple of surprises in the album also, we can hear Herr Morbid from Forgotten Tomb doing guest vocals in "Like A Somnambulist…" and as a bonus track, "Endtime" a cover of Katatonia , done in the Dark Fortress way of course.

I'm lucky to have in my hands now the best Black Metal release of the year, definitively Dark Fortress will not pass unnoticed in the Metal community, bands with excellent songwriting and superb talent rarely go unnoticed and I hope that Dark Fortress will be no exception.

After making a conscious effort to hear this album i would say that this album is: varied certainly but i found the true version of dark fortress after listening to the excellent 9th title "like a ..."